


Nice Running into You

by rainbowsandbubbles



Series: JatP Character Deep Dives [3]
Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: M/M, Willie Backstory (Julie and The Phantoms)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-15
Updated: 2020-11-15
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:00:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27570406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rainbowsandbubbles/pseuds/rainbowsandbubbles
Summary: The meeting between Willie and Alex -- but from Willie's perspective.
Relationships: Alex/Willie (Julie and The Phantoms)
Series: JatP Character Deep Dives [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2034106
Comments: 16
Kudos: 134





	Nice Running into You

**Author's Note:**

> I have a lot of thoughts about the backstories for these characters in my head, so depending upon how this story is received, I might post more. My goal is to stick within the canon of the show, just fleshing out some of the characters that I hope to see more of in season 2.

Willie stood in the shadows of the Orpheum marquee. Most people who passed by didn’t even glance in his direction,, which was to be expected because he was a ghost, after all. The lifers who came to see the sights on Sunset Blvd. would never see him.

But Willie wasn’t here for them.

The blonde ghost had been pacing up and down this section of Sunset Blvd. for ten minutes. He didn’t look like he was trying to find anything in particular, and Willie was pretty sure he wasn’t here to meet anyone either. He looked confused. Anxious. Lost.

Willie knew that look. The look of someone who didn’t quite belong. Someone who might have felt a little bit like a lost soul, even before they died. Willie had been one of those lost souls himself, once upon a time.

Before Caleb took him in.

But there was something different about this blonde ghost. He was awkward in a sweet, little puppy kind of way. He didn’t show any signs of potential hidden power, like the souls Caleb usually sent Willie to recruit. Maybe he had the wrong target.

No. This was definitely the guy. Willie could feel the slight pull from the spark Caleb had planted when he marked him for collection. And if Caleb wanted him, there must be a reason.

The blonde ghost stopped pacing a few feet from the Orpheum, and Willie stepped back into the shadows, just in case. But the blonde’s attention was riveted on a couple of Ghostbusters cosplayers at the end of the block. When he crouched down, his arms outstretched to fend off the cosplayers, as if he thought they were really out searching for ghosts, Willie had to poof himself down the street, so the adorable blonde wouldn’t hear him laughing.

When the ghostbusting cosplayers passed through him, the blonde ghost stood up and awkwardly glanced around, as if checking to see if anyone around him had noticed.

“Okay.”

He shook his hair out of his face and shoved his hands into his pockets, like he was simultaneously trying to shrink away and to show bravado. Then, with a quick glance around, he strode off down the street.

When he didn’t pivot at the end of the block to pace back up the street, Willie realized the blonde ghost wasn’t coming back.

Afraid he might miss his moment, Willie strapped his helmet on and dropped his skateboard, hopping on before the wheels even hit the pavement. As soon as they made contact with the ground, he pushed off to zoom after the blonde.

Willie knew he couldn’t let the ghost get away, but still he couldn’t resist zipping through a few lifers as he careened down the sidewalk. He loved the rush of emotion when he passed through them. And he had gotten pretty good at quickly sifting through their most prominent thoughts to pull out bits of juicy information when their souls collided. Just in case things didn’t go as planned with his target, he wouldn’t go back to Caleb empty-handed.

Never come back without something valuable. That was the first thing Dante and Fuego had taught Willie when they recruited him into Caleb’s club.

The guy with the funky hat had nothing except a recipe for his great grand-aunt’s apple streudel, but the girl with the unhealthy obsession with getting a perfectly-framed photo on her phone? Hmm… Even Caleb might be surprised by her secret.

But Willie didn’t have time to think about it too much. Because suddenly, the blonde ghost was right in front of him. And with one more giant push, Willie ran into him, “accidentally” knocking them both to the ground.

Wow.

_What was that?_

Willie usually felt a small jolt of electricity when he connected with the souls Caleb had marked for collection, but this was … something else. This was stronger than anything he’d ever felt before.

He needed a moment to catch his breath and calm his racing … well, not technically his heart, since he didn’t actually have a pulse these days.

“Awww… man. You dinged my board,” he said, willing himself to completely focus on the skate deck that didn’t really have any new scratches on it.

“I dinged your board.” The blonde was pissed. “Dude, you ran me over. You’re lucky I didn’t—” He stopped as realization hit. “You ran me over. You—you’re a ghost?”

Willie seriously needed to focus. Caleb would not be pleased if he got distracted by a pair of piercing blue eyes.

He took off his helmet and shook his head to clear his thoughts.

This was a job. Nothing more.

He’d done this a thousand times, and he probably only imagined that jolt of electricity when he collided with blonde boy, anyway. That kind of thing didn’t happen in real life. … Or, afterlife.

“Sorry I smashed into you. I thought you were a lifer, and I’d just pass right through.”

“A lifer?”

“Yeah, that’s what we call people who are living. You’re new to this whole ghost thing, aren’t you?”

The script was familiar. Comforting. He could do this. Just like all the times before.

But when he introduced himself and the blonde ghost, Alex, shook his hand … there was that zing again.

And suddenly, Willie couldn’t remember the script.

Alex was cute, but Willie already knew that. Honestly, most of the souls Caleb sent him to collect were objectively cute in one way or another. Caleb really did like to surround himself with pretty people.

None of the others had ever been a distraction like this. And none of the others had made Willie giggle awkwardly in public. Seriously, he was _not_ the giggling type.

“Hey, do you mind if I ask you a couple of questions?”

Alex was looking at him as if they were already close friends. And Willie knew he could probably get him to come back to Caleb’s club right now, just by asking him to. But Willie wasn’t ready for that. For the first time ever, he wanted to actually get to know his target.

“All right.” He dropped his board and jumped on, pulling his helmet over his head as he rode away. “You’ve just gotta keep up.”

And he did.

Alex jogged alongside Willie for a few blocks before pulling him to a stop next to a bus bench. “Can we just sit? It’s kind of disconcerting when I pass through the—what did you call them? Lifers?—I get this rush of thoughts that…” He shook his head. “It’s too weird. Okay.”

Alex sat on the bench, and Willie hesitated for only a moment before joining him. He had a job to do, after all. He couldn’t let the target get away.

That’s all he was doing here.

Really.


End file.
